Canada Expands Services Offer In Ongoing GATS Negotiations at WTO

OTTAWA--The Canadian government May 18 submitted an expanded market access offer on services trade as part of ongoing Doha Round negotiations within the World Trade Organization to update the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS).

The offer adds to Canada's initial GATS market access offer, submitted to the WTO in March 2003, and is intended to improve the chances for a successful agreement that would provide benefits for the Canadian economy and consumers, Canadian International Trade Minister Jim Peterson said May 18.

'Successful talks would also mean significant new opportunities for Canadian businesses in new economic powerhouses such as China, India, and Brazil, as well as with our established partners in Japan and the European Union,' Peterson said in a statement.

Public Services Off Limits

The trade minister stressed, however, that the new offer maintains the Canadian government's commitment not to negotiate access to Canada's health, public education, social services, or cultural markets in the GATS talks. 'Our offer clearly indicates that Canada's public services are not up for negotiation,' he said.

Alejandro Jara, the chairman of the WTO negotiating group on services, said recently in Geneva that he would be holding informal discussions with WTO member governments aimed at sounding out their ideas for jump-starting the stalled services negotiations(81 ITD, 04/28/05) . WTO members are scheduled to submit their revised offers by the end of May--even though some 40 countries have failed to submit their initial offers, which were due in March 2003.

The revised Canadian offer takes into account market access requests made by other WTO members, particularly requests from developing and least-developed countries, and remains conditional on the overall level of liberalization that is achieved at the end of the GATS negotiations, International Trade Canada said May 18 in a background document. Canada retains the right to add, remove, or modify any element of the offer until a final agreement is reached that meets Canada's objectives, the background document said.

Key elements of the revised offer include:

Temporary movement of business people--inclusion of a new category of intra-corporate transferees to facilitate temporary entry of individuals for career development purposes, expansion of commitments for senior computer specialists by including the broader category of information communications technology professionals, lowering minimum education and experience requirements, removing limits on the number of senior computer specialists allowed entry for a specific project, addition of management consultants to the list of professions afforded temporary entry, and scheduling of the overall temporary movement offer through the 'model schedule' being promoted by Canada and a number of other WTO parties;

Professional services--improvements to access for the legal services, accounting, auditing, and bookkeeping services, and engineering services sub-sectors by removing some provincial residency requirements; elimination of some requirements for commercial presence; and more liberal residency requirements; plus new commitments in one province for temporary licensing of foreign legal consultants;

Transport services--amendment of the access offer on maritime transport services, in response to requests from numerous WTO members, to more closely follow the model schedule discussed during the Uruguay Round negotiations, further definition of terms, removal of a ship registration restriction on cross-border trade of international maritime transport services, clarification of a restriction related to fishing vessels, removal of a provincial requirement for a public convenience and needs test related to highway freight transportation, removal of a cabotage limitation on cross-border supply of rail transport services, and elimination of a provincial residency requirement for boards of directors of rail transport firms;

Financial services--removal of provincial residency requirements for trading in securities and commodities futures and provision of auxiliary financial services; removal of a provincial requirement that certain insurance services be provided by a publicly owned monopoly; enhancement of the range of choices available to foreign suppliers of banking services through an option to simultaneously establish more than one form of establishment, such as a subsidiary, a lending branch, or a full service branch; and provision of less restrictive direct ownership and control requirements for foreign-owned subsidiaries;

Exemptions to most favored nation status--elimination of a provincial exemption for preferential treatment of loan and investment companies incorporated in the United Kingdom and Ireland, and elimination of two exemptions allowing for preferential treatment of the United States related to certain maritime transport activities;

Commercial presence--enhancement of the ability of foreign services suppliers to acquire land in certain provinces and implementation of less restrictive provincial residency requirements for members of boards of directors of services entities;

Tourism services--modification of a provincial citizenship requirement for the provision of tourism services to provide that citizenship is only required for the sale of alcoholic beverages; and

Courier services--removal of a provincial requirement for an economic needs test to qualify for the provision of courier services.

Full text of the revised Canadian GATS market access offer is available on International Trade Canada's Web site at http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca/tna-nac/TS/revised-offer-2005-en.asp.